Cocteau believed film was a dream in which we all participate… by dream, he says, “I mean a succession of real events that follow on from one another with the magnificent absurdity of a dream”[1]. Cocteau’s The Blood of a Poet is just this; both suggestively biographical yet more like an animated cartoon than a true live-action film. The film imagines Cocteau’s life events the “real blood” and also the artistic process and the pain and self reflecting doubt it causes, the “imagined blood” through the techniques of the surreal and absurd. Cocteau described its disturbing series of voyeuristic tableaux as "a descent into oneself, a way of using the mechanism of the dream without sleeping, a crooked candle, often mysteriously blown out, carried about in the night of the human body."
The idea for a film began during a house party in 1929. Georges Auric, Cocteau's lifelong musical collaborator, surprised his hosts by announcing that he wanted to compose the score for an animated cartoon. Cocteau was asked on the spot to provide a scenario. After some discussion the hosts of the party agreed to give Cocteau a million francs to make a real film with a score by Auric. This became The Blood of a Poet.
The Blood of a Poet maintains the animated cartoon style that Auric has envisioned. There is magic and imagination, surreal events and strange occurrences. While Cocteau delves into the autobiographical, it is the imagined quality of the film that the audience will remember. The film begins with a young man, a poet, attempting to draw a series of faces. Suddenly, the mouth of one of these 'faces' rubs off in his hand and starts smiling. Terrified, the poet accidentally smears off the mouth of the statue he was working on previously. The statue comes to life and, in return, forcefully sends the young man through the mirror to another, imaginary locale at a mysterious hotel. The use of artwork throughout the film delves into Cocteau’s own experimentation with many art forms.
The idea for a film began during a house party in 1929. Georges Auric, Cocteau's lifelong musical collaborator, surprised his hosts by announcing that he wanted to compose the score for an animated cartoon. Cocteau was asked on the spot to provide a scenario. After some discussion the hosts of the party agreed to give Cocteau a million francs to make a real film with a score by Auric. This became The Blood of a Poet.
The Blood of a Poet maintains the animated cartoon style that Auric has envisioned. There is magic and imagination, surreal events and strange occurrences. While Cocteau delves into the autobiographical, it is the imagined quality of the film that the audience will remember. The film begins with a young man, a poet, attempting to draw a series of faces. Suddenly, the mouth of one of these 'faces' rubs off in his hand and starts smiling. Terrified, the poet accidentally smears off the mouth of the statue he was working on previously. The statue comes to life and, in return, forcefully sends the young man through the mirror to another, imaginary locale at a mysterious hotel. The use of artwork throughout the film delves into Cocteau’s own experimentation with many art forms.
The young poet's journey to a mysterious hotel becomes an exploration of the artistic process. In the hotel, the poet witnesses a series of scenes involving a child being whipped by her mother in something resembling a strangely orchestrated, sadistic ritual. Both the mother and child play a wicked game with each other, resulting in the child levitating up the ceiling while the threatening mother pursues her with a whip. This exploration into the artistic process, and the result of punishment and self doubt, show the “imagined blood”.
Cocteau presents artistic effort as a self-inflicting act of suffering using suicide or violent death as recurring motifs in the film. In one scene, the film shows a group of schoolboys throwing snowballs at each other. Accidentally, one of the boys gets killed by a snowball; he falls down and bleeds in theatrical, staged fashion. Later in the film, the poet transforms into a high society figure that plays a game of cards, loses, and shoots himself in the head. These motifs of suicide and suffering are elements of the “real blood”: Cocteau's father committed suicide when he was nine or ten.
[1] Cocteau, Jean The Art of Cinema, trans. Robin Buss. London and New York: Marion Boyars, 2001, p. 40.
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